However, things quickly change again when they learn that the perpetrator has been released from jail because the place where Geraldine was attacked sits on a place where three specific pieces of land sit, each with a different legal jurisdiction. For the first time in weeks, life at Joe’s house returns to normal.
Geraldine refuses, however, to tell Bazil the identity of the man until they can learn the fate of the woman and her child.Ī short time later, Joe learns that the man responsible for the attack on his mother has been arrested. Geraldine tells Bazil everything she can remember of the attack, including the other woman and her infant the same man threatened to kill. One night, after several days of Bazil forcing Geraldine to listen to silly conversation, the mention of a baby sets off memories of the day of the attack. This causes Geraldine to lock herself in her bedroom for weeks, refusing to eat. At first she seems to be healing, but then Bazil surprises her when he comes home one night. Days later, when she comes home, Joe and his father tip toe around the house in order to avoid disturbing his mother. Joe is angry and frightened, determined to protect his mother. In the chaos afterward, Joe hears little tidbits here and there, enough to realize his mother has been raped. Thinking that she had gone to the grocery store because she had forgotten that it was Sunday, they return home to find her battered and bloody.īazil quickly moves his wife to the back seat and rushes her to the hospital. As they make their way to the nearest town, they pass Geraldine in her car. Bazil and Joe walk down to his Aunt Clemence’s house to borrow her car, assuming that Geraldine has had car trouble.
As the afternoon slips away, Joe’s father, Bazil Coutts, begins to worry about his wife, Geraldine. Joe and his father are working in the yard of their small house one Sunday afternoon. The Round House is a unique look at life on the reservations and the complicated legal system that often lets even the worst criminals slip through the loopholes. Joe is angered by this news and plots to find a way to stop his mother’s attacker. For this reason, the perpetrator is let go. Unfortunately, Joe’s mother cannot remember where the worst of the attack took place therefore, no one can figure out who has the right to try him. As Joe watches from the sidelines, his father, a judge, struggles to work within the legal system to find and prosecute the perpetrator. In this novel, thirteen year old Joe struggles to find a way to help his mother in the aftermath of a brutal attack. The Round House is a novel by Louise Erdrich.
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